


Mirror Image

by Namesake



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst, Bottle!Brainy, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Introspection, Post-Episode: s05e19 Immortal Kombat, Sick Character, yes i know radiation doesn't work that way it's about the visuals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 16:01:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29298564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Namesake/pseuds/Namesake
Summary: In an effort to save Brainy from the effects of Leviathan's radiation shield, Kara and Nia enlist the help of one of his darker counterparts. One currently trapped in a bottle of his own making.
Relationships: Kara Danvers & Nia Nal, Kara Danvers & Querl Dox, Querl Dox & Nia Nal
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8





	Mirror Image

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my third, maybe fourth story surrounding the season 5 finale and the events that might follow it. I've been basing a lot of these stories on the idea that Brainy might be healed by one of the water tanks in the Legion ship, but for the purposes of this story - and for further angst - there is no future-healing alternative available here. 
> 
> This is a fic for my friend, cyclone-rachel, who requested a prompt a LONG time ago to see Bottle!Brainy help to save Brainy Prime in some way after what happens in the events of 5x19. Sorry it's so late, Rachel, but I hope you like it! 
> 
> As always, kudos and comments mean the world to me! <3 x

Kara didn’t know how long she’d been stood frozen in Lena’s medical lab, so separated from the outside world, deep in the recesses of Luthor Corp, tucked away into a nook all of its own.

Her arms were locked tight across her chest; Kara couldn’t remember the last time she’d so much as shifted her stance. Not that it mattered. Not like moving would change anything.

She couldn’t get any closer than here. Stood in this stalemate of a position behind tempered glass that stretched the length of the wall. Behind it was a room nearly as large as the DEO’s old medical facility, though it only housed one person on the other side.

Brainy appeared so small in the room’s singular medical bed. He hardly looked any better than when J’onn had pulled him out from Leviathan’s radiation shield in the first place. He was stable – at least, that was what Lena had said. Honestly, Kara kind of suspected she had been using the term incredibly loosely. The only real difference Kara could see between Brainy’s condition now compared to when he’d first been brought down here was that all three of his life projectors were glowing steadily again.

Kara’s tongue suddenly felt far too thick in her mouth. She didn’t think the memory of Brainy’s projectors flickering sporadically, spasming in tandem with the weak stutters of his own breathing, would leave her any time soon.

She swallowed hard, brushing the hair out of her face. In the same motion, she caught the heel of her hand against her eye, rubbing it idly.

She couldn’t remember ever feeling this tired before. Not physically - _physically_ she was burning with so much pent-up energy, she wasn’t even sure how she’d managed to stay still for this long. Mentally, though? Her head was thundering, trying desperately to work through everything she knew. And everything she didn’t.

Nia had dreamed the truth and, between all he chaos, she’d been able to fill them in. That Brainy had been lying this whole time, that he’d partnered with Lex, all to stop Leviathan from destroying the world. He’d sacrificed his life for this. For _them._

But, Kara should have _known._

For months, he’d been so subdued. Kara had expected to see changes in Brainy’s demeanour after taking off his inhibitors, but the way he’d tried to remove himself from any gathering strictly outside of work – how he’d been so reserved, keen to distance himself in any way that he could. It had been hard not to take it personally.

But, it _had_ been personal, that was the whole point _._ He’d gone as far as breaking Nia’s heart to keep her as far from the truth as possible and, in kind, he’d made it incredibly difficult for any of his friends to breach the walls he’d thrown up so strategically around himself.

Maybe if Kara hadn’t been so distracted, she might have noticed. Maybe… maybe she _had_ noticed, but had been too caught up in her own head to even question it. Maybe, she’d only hoped Brainy would find his way back to them on his own. Once he’d figured out his new place as the Director of the DEO, once he’d understood his uninhibited mind a little better. He’d just needed time; time would have solved everything.

But, time was a luxury that none of them had been able to afford. And the time that she’d had to spare only felt wasted now. She was certain it could have been spent differently; if she’d just thought to talk to him about it.

He’d opened up to her, after all. All those months ago, Brainy had shared a rare moment of vulnerability with her by talking so candidly about his inhibitors, what his mother had done, how his father had reacted. He’d told Kara how terrified he’d been of removing them, of becoming the person his father had been so afraid of.

She hadn’t believed for a moment that Brainy had anything to worry about. He had a kindness in his heart that was truly striking, and his passion towards his role as a hero had always reminded Kara of exactly why she’d become Supergirl in the first place. Kind of ironic, she realised, if what she’d been told was true and the Legion really had been inspired by her own actions in this time.

And, she’d been right to believe in him, because seeing Brainy fully realise his own potential when he’d faced off against his doppelganger, the light in his eyes when he’d smiled unreservedly for the first time in so long - it had made everything worthwhile.

She should have questioned where that person had gone. Why an imposter who had strictly worn nothing but a blank and impassive expression had taken his place not a day later.

She could only imagine what hiding all of this had felt like for him. So new to the full scope of his own emotions, with no buffer from his inhibitors, no reprieve from the intensity of his guilt or frustrations. He’d had to hold onto all of that and lie to each of his friends’ faces. Every _day._

No wonder he’d kept his distance from them all. That kind of emotional backlog must have eaten him alive.

Now, the truth was out, but instead of having the opportunity to talk to Brainy about everything that had happened, all they could do was watch as he lay motionless in bed, a cocktail of drugs being pumped through his systems in an effort to fight the excess radiation flooding his cells.

The oxygen mask on his face looked so out of place, deepening the yellowish bruising around his eyes and cheekbones. His green skin appeared nearly translucent beneath it, and his blond hair was slick to his forehead from a relentless and ever fluctuating fever. His eyes didn’t flicker behind his lids; he was utterly still aside from the steady rise and fall of his chest.

Wherever his mind had gone, it was far out of reach.

The drugs weren’t working. Kara didn’t need to be a doctor to know that. Radiation exposure like the kind on Leviathan’s ship would have been enough to kill most lifeforms in less than a minute. If Brainy hadn’t had the help of his internal enhancements…

Kara shook herself. It didn’t matter. Even with his enhancements, Brainy’s body had been totally irradiated, the only thing keeping that kind of contaminant from spreading were the reinforced glass walls stood in front of Kara’s face.

Alex was the resident expert on alien physiology, but even with Lena’s help and an abundance of experimental therapies at her disposal, odds weren’t looking good. Coluans could control a lot of their functions with automated processes courtesy of their implants, enough that Brainy’s body should have been capable of flushing out radiation to a certain level.

But, that wasn’t happening. Or at least, it wasn’t happening well _enough._ Brainy wasn’t improving, and if the waver in Lena’s voice was anything to go by, even his _stability_ was a fleeting state. Even with every possible amenity to ensure Brainy’s body had the strength to heal, none of it was working. He was only getting sicker.

Impulsively, Kara unfurled her arm from her chest, reaching for the glass. Brainy looked so vulnerable in this state, and even if the erratic beat of his pulse hadn’t been displayed on a monitor for the world to see, she would have still heard it. Her heightened senses were honed directly onto his heart, her own clenching uncomfortably at even the slightest discrepancy in rhythm.

Then, a new sound cut through her focus. One of Nia’s breathing behind her, hitching suddenly as she nearly jerked clean off her chair.

Kara turned to her worriedly. From the moment they’d gotten Brainy back to Lena’s lab, Nia had been dedicating every second to the dreamscape, travelling deep inside of her own mind in a bid to try and trigger any vision that might help them save Brainy. While Nia was flitting between dream states, Kara had promised her that she would keep watch over Brainy in case anything happened.

It felt wrong tearing herself away from him for even a second and so, as a compromise, Kara kept her palm spread loosely across the glass, the echo of Brainy’s heart still thrumming through her ears.

Nia bent in on herself the moment she was pulled from the dream. She pressed her face into her hands, groaning lowly.

“What did you see?” Kara asked gently.

Nia’s back tensed, and she lifted her head up with some effort. She blinked tiredly in Kara’s direction. Kara’s lips twisted, she was definitely familiar with that feeling. “Not much at first,” Nia said heavily. “I saw… I saw the bottle again. The one Lex took.”

Kara narrowed her eyes. “Do you know where it is?”

Nia shook her head, sagging forward. “No. It was just stuff I’ve already seen. Brainy using the bottle to stop Leviathan and then Lex… taking it.” She rubbed her head idly. “But I… I think something was different this time.”

“Different?” Kara prompted.

“Yeah, I-” Nia stopped suddenly, closing her eyes as though she was trying to visualise what she’d seen. The furrow to her brow softened and she nodded, clenching her jaw. “Ever since these visions started, they were always based inside Leviathan’s casino, but this time, I didn’t see anything in the background. Just… a _whole_ lot of white.” She opened her eyes suddenly, drawing in a sharp breath. “It was snowing.”

Kara’s gut clenched instinctively. Nothing about Nia’s dreams had ever proven to be coincidental before, and she knew they weren’t about to start now. A lot of her dreams were up for interpretation, and it wasn’t like snow couldn’t have been symbolic in a number of different ways. But in context for Brainy? Snow could’ve only been a bad omen. 

Something told Kara that Nia was thinking the same. Still, they didn’t know anything for certain yet. Kara cleared her throat. “That could mean a lot of things,” she said lowly. “Anything else?”

Nia’s eyes fluttered. “Yeah. Before, I kept seeing Brainy with two faces, sort of, at least. It was like I was seeing two sides of him; his inducer was only half working. His skin was green, but his hair was still dark, like the truth was leaking through.” She smiled bitterly. “But that was different this time, too. It wasn’t that he had two faces. There were two _of_ him. Two Brainys.”

“In the snow,” Kara said.

Nia nodded. “One with his inducer on, one without. And, and _just_ before the dream ended… I could’ve sworn that the Brainy using his inducer was holding a bottle. But, not the one Lex took. A different one.” Nia's eyes widened and she hissed out, sudden enough to startle Kara, running a hand through her hair. “I’m such an _idiot._ I was right. It wasn’t the same bottle.” She looked back to Kara, her expression darkly certain. “But I _have_ seen it before.”

Kara was already putting the pieces together. She clenched her hand against the glass at her back. “Brainy’s doppelganger,” she said weakly. “We... we put his bottle in the Fortress for safe keeping.”

“Another Brainy in the snow,” Nia agreed grimly. “That’s gotta be it.” She stood from her chair, so suddenly that Kara was worried she might buckle. She didn’t, instead, Nia lifted her chin, hands curling into fists. “Kara, I can’t explain why, but I think that’s who we need. I think – I think that’s how we save Brainy.”

* * *

Kara hadn’t suspected she would be standing face-to-face with this version of Brainy for a very, _very_ long time.

From the moment they had released him from the bottle stored at the Fortress, she had no idea what to expect from him. He seemed… more contemplative than he had done at Al’s bar, and the wild energy he’d been exuding before had all but evaporated. Not to say there wasn’t still a stiffness about him, or an air of darkness that seemed to follow him like a second shadow.

As much as he may have looked like their Brainy, he was completely unfounded territory to them all. Not just that, he was dangerous.

What he’d done, though? Kara would have been lying to herself if she’d said she couldn’t understand it. She knew the kind of desperation that could bring someone to the brink, to try anything to save their world, their family, from total destruction. Had Kara lost her Earth, she wouldn’t have stopped until she’d found a way of saving the people she loved.

But, this Brainy had _killed_ for that. And, not just other versions of himself, but he’d nearly killed Nia in his twisted pursuit to save his planet. The devastation in their Brainy’s voice when he’d witnessed his shadow self strike Nia down… Kara knew she’d never forget that sound.

The worst part, though, the part that _really_ hurt, was that if this Brainy had been anything like their own, he would have at least tried asking for their help. But, he hadn’t. He hadn’t considered for even a second that Kara or any of her friends might have wanted to help him simply out of the kindness of their own hearts.

And, if he couldn’t understand that, then just what kind of a world had he come from? What _friends_ had he been trying to protect? Kara knew so little about him, and yet the moment she released him from the bottle, still looking as dishevelled and war-torn as the day he had entered it all those months ago, she had barely found the words to try and articulate what they needed from him.

She hadn’t expected he would help. She’d wanted to trust in Nia’s dream, but, but how could she believe that this version of Brainy would want anything to do with any of them? They had condemned him to an existence trapped inside a bottle, where time was probably as stagnated as the Phantom Zone. It was a fate he had accepted, but only because he had known that he had no other choice.

And the truth of the matter was that they were still no closer to giving him what he wanted. Of finding a way to break the quantum seal and restore his world somewhere out there in the vastness of space.

She watched this other Brainy… this other _Querl_ as he examined the glass panes separating him from his target. With his dark hair still mussed along the side of his jaw, the pensive nature of his eyes, even with his inducer running, he reminded Kara so much of their Brainy that it nearly ached.

Nia didn’t seem to have the same problem, although Kara suspected it would be a lot harder finding any similarities between the person who had tried to kill her and the person who had nearly killed himself to save them all. Even though this had been Nia’s idea, Kara could tell she was on edge.

While Querl was still distracted, Kara leaned towards her, bumping Nia’s shoulder. “Are you sure about this?” she murmured.

“Positive,” Nia said, not tearing her eyes from Querl for a second. She sighed through her teeth. “I mean, I think I am,” she muttered. “Seriously, do we have any other choice here?”

Kara remained silent. After all, they both knew that they didn’t.

Querl chose that moment to shift his stance, raising his hand towards the door’s control panel. It turned green before his fingers had even brushed up against its surface.

Kara’s eyes widened and, impulsively, she reached out, taking Querl’s arm.

She regretted the action almost immediately.

This wasn’t Brainy. In fact, this Querl wasn’t even technically corporeal. He felt real enough, though, his arm was warm and solid in her grip, although that wasn’t exactly surprising. Kara knew Coluan physiology was far more complex than that of regular organic life. No matter how real he felt, he was no more than an extension of the bottle’s mass. He could travel no further than the length of the room without it.

Querl didn’t so much as jerk at the sudden contact. Instead, he glanced towards her, his dark eyes gently entertained. “Relax,” he said. It was the first thing he’d said to either of them since agreeing to come here, and Kara was reminded once again of the subtle difference in his voice from Brainy’s, the slightly higher register of which he spoke. There was something playful in his expression, and Kara couldn’t for the life of her figure out whether that was a good thing or not.

Not good, she decided. Almost _definitely_ not good.

When Kara didn’t say anything, Querl rolled his shoulder, enough to loosen her grip. He glanced back towards the glass, gesturing to it idly. “I cannot be harmed by radiation in this half-state,” he muttered. “One _up-side_ of my imprisonment.”

The bitterness in his voice was barely perceptible, but it was there alright. Kara fought to hold a neutral expression.

Whether Querl picked up on her discomfort or not, he didn’t say. Instead, he looked to Nia before skirting his attention back to Kara and the hand she still had half-raised towards him. He quirked a brow. “Do you want me to save him or not?”

Something hard formed in Kara’s throat. “Will you?” she asked steadily.

Querl only stared at her. Despite the crackle of energy around him, the longer he held her eyes, the more that Kara could see a laden exhaustion lingering behind them. He was hiding it well, but there was no way to conceal it completely. From a stranger, maybe. But they were hardly strangers to each other anymore.

Kara had seen that same look in Brainy’s eyes on more than one occasion, and it made her wonder yet again just how similar this Querl’s life was to Brainy’s. Had he suffered the same abuse from his mother, or faced the same punishment by his father’s hand? Had he been fitted with inhibitors at all and, if so, had he struggled to find himself like Brainy? Or… or had he _ever_ found a place for himself?

Kara knew she wouldn’t be getting any of those answers. Despite this Querl’s affinity for theatrics, he was far from an open book.

After a long moment, Querl blinked, a small smile twitching the corners of his mouth. “You will have to find out, won’t you?”

That was true enough. Kara couldn’t exactly pass judgement on this Querl until he gave her reason to. And so, she and Nia gave Querl a wide berth as he prepared to enter Brainy’s room. Kara figured the decontamination chamber in front of the door wasn’t exactly necessary for him, but he still waited patiently for the process to finish its cycle before stepping through to the other side.

Querl crossed the room silently, his chin half raised curiously as he came to a stop at the edge of Brainy’s bed. He reviewed the state of his counterpart with an impassive expression, his dark eyes stilling somewhere over Brainy’s chest.

“What do you think he’ll do?” Kara asked.

“I didn’t see that far,” Nia murmured, hugging herself tight. “But, I know this is what my dreams were telling me. It has to be. Otherwise…” She stopped herself, shaking her head. “No, he can do this. He can save Brainy.”

Kara reached out, squeezing Nia’s shoulder. She caught the glimmer of moisture in Nia’s eyes before she lowered her head, knocking her hair in front of her face.

Brainy was so still, if it wasn’t for the short rise and fall of his chest, the heartbeat still thundering inside Kara’s head, it would have been far too easy to believe that he’d...

Kara swallowed hard, discarding that train of thought before it even had a chance to fully form. Instead, she watched intently as Querl reached out his hand, running his palm a half-inch over Brainy’s body. He continued the motion for about thirty seconds before he stopped suddenly, clenching his fingers together. Right over Brainy’s centre.

He kept his hand static in that position, angling his free arm towards himself, running his fingers over his abdomen, brushing across the life projector that was fused there. Shadows flickered through the gaps of his fingers, casting dark streaks over Brainy’s body. Kara had to admit, now side-by-side, Brainy’s projectors seemed far weaker in comparison, the light that issued from them just a soft glow against Querl’s angry white glare.

Kara couldn’t tell what Querl was thinking, which was why she nearly choked when his fingers clenched tightly over his own core and, with one swift tug, he removed it from his body.

Kara felt Nia flinch at her side. Something cold congealed inside Kara’s veins. She’d never seen Brainy remove his life projector before, although she knew that it must have been possible, especially considering the two others he now wore alongside his own. But those other Brainys… they’d joined the Coluan network – the Big Brain. By connecting to Brainy, they had given up their corporeal forms for good.

But, Querl _wasn’t_ corporeal. So, what was he _thinking?_

Unless… unless there was something she was missing here.

Had this been Querl’s plan from the beginning? Use their desperation to his own gain? Was this some kind of a loophole to get out of his imprisonment in the bottle? Was that even _possible_?

Kara’s jaw clenched as she pulled herself from the window, ready to end this, whatever it was, before it even started. Maybe she had held too much hope this could work, maybe she’d put her trust in the wrong person all over again. It wasn’t like Querl hadn’t fooled them before.

But, before she could go any further, she felt Nia’s hand enclose around her wrist, and a sharp jolt of dream energy travelled up her arm. Kara flinched, turning towards her in confusion.

“Nia-” she began.

“Just watch,” Nia said. She wasn’t looking at Kara, instead, she was staring at the scene still underway behind the glass.

Kara pursed her lips, glancing cautiously back to the room.

Querl’s stance was perfectly rigid as he drew his life projector over Brainy’s body. Like a jigsaw puzzle’s final piece, Querl lowered it towards the centre of Brainy’s chest, creating a pattern of dots not dissimilar from the letter ‘Y’ along the front of his suit. As though some magnetic force was pulling the core towards that spot, Querl let go, and the life projector fastened itself to Brainy’s sternum in an instant.

At the exact same moment, Querl gasped out, ducking his head. He linked his fingers together weakly, only barely managing to complete the gesture before he was forced to curl in on himself, stiffening with clear pain. Kara could see the white flash of Querl’s teeth as his lips peeled back into a sharp grimace, clenched so tight they looked fit to shatter.

Then, Querl shuddered, squeezing his eyes shut as his hair fell forward, obscuring his face. The central life projector - _Querl’s_ life projector – was beginning to flicker hesitantly on Brainy’s chest, blinking out of time with the other cores already present there.

Kara’s chest tightened. They were _all_ flashing now, no longer the steady glow like before. It wasn’t quite as alarming as the near-death flicker she’d seen when he’d been pulled from Leviathan’s ship. Instead, Brainy’s cores flashed in an odd out-of-synch rhythm, although, as Kara watched, she realised they were slowly beginning to match up to the pattern of Querl’s core.

Querl’s own image was growing unstable. It flickered in and out like TV static as he curled further in on himself, his fingers loosening from one another so that he could clutch feebly at his own chest.

Kara wasn’t sure what was happening, exactly, only that Brainy’s heart rate had kicked into high gear. She glanced over to the monitor, unsure whether she could trust the pulse raging inside her head as only Brainy’s, or maybe it had been coupled with her own. The readings only confirmed her fears. Despite how still Brainy remained on the bed, he was clearly in distress.

It was only when the door’s control panel lit up with an ominous red that Kara realised what was going on.

Lena had put Brainy in that room for a reason. Not just for the probable radioactive threat he posed, but because those four walls had been outfitted to work as a decontamination unit if necessary. If Brainy’s body had miraculously begun to stabilise, if he’d been able to flush out the radiation or even metabolise it to a certain degree, any excess would need to go _somewhere._

And that was exactly what was happening now. Kara stared mutely as the air around Brainy’s body began to shimmer and, before she or Nia could react, a vicious slew of glimmering particles expelled into the atmosphere around him. They refracted the fluorescents of the room like a fine silvery glitter, shimmering in and out of the visible field before Kara’s eyes. Kara wasn’t sure if someone without enhanced vision would see anything at all, but by the way Nia was staring, she figured it was clear enough that _something_ was happening.

As she continued to watch, the radiation that had just been secreted from Brainy’s body slowly began to disperse, passing through Querl as though he was nothing more than a ghostly observer. The edges of the glittering mist had begun to fade already and, in just a few seconds, even the remnants of the radiation along the furthest edges of the room had disappeared. With it, the red glare of the control panel stabilised to a much more reassuring green. 

As though in tandem with that, Querl relaxed, breathing out a sigh of relief. He straightened, pushing the hair back from his face. Then, he bit his tongue, snatching his life projector from Brainy’s chest before quickly fixing it back to his own body.

Querl barely had it secured in place before Brainy jerked suddenly on the mattress.

Kara’s heart sank at the disorientated, terrified look on Brainy’s face as he shot up from the bed, scrambling for balance beneath the sheets still pinning his legs down. He clawed at his face immediately, digging his fingers against the oxygen mask before pulling it violently away, tugging against loose strands of blond hair that had been caught across his nose. His eyes softened instantly, flickering with relief as he sucked in a deep lungful of air.

It was only after his breathing had begun to slow that he stiffened, and Kara realised that until that point, he probably hadn’t realised that he wasn’t alone. 

The room was soundproof to a human ear, and although Kara had been focusing strictly on Brainy’s heart, now that it was thumping along at a much healthier rhythm, she couldn’t bring herself to pull back just yet. Especially when Brainy was clearly about to say something to his counterpart.

“You,” Brainy managed. His voice sounded raw, wrung ragged by all he had been through. He lifted a hand to his throat in confusion, gripping it weakly.

Querl raised a brow proudly. “Is that how you address the person who just _saved_ your _life_?”

Brainy’s lips thinned with immediate disdain. Kara could see his eyes working fervently over his doppelganger, trying desperately to pull the pieces together, to make them make sense.

But he’d been unconscious for so long, and it was clear that he was struggling to sort through the static in his own head.

After a long moment, Brainy gave up. “Where _am_ I?” he asked instead.

“You mean, I presume,” Querl said, easing his shoulders back, “who _sanctioned_ this effort?” He smirked, throwing his attention towards the same glass pane Kara and Nia were staring through.

Brainy’s eyes narrowed in question. The moment he turned towards the glass, Kara averted her eyes, trying to pretend as though she hadn’t been gawking. The glass was one-way. She _knew_ it was one-way, and yet she could still feel Brainy’s eyes burning right through to the other end.

Even without his normal processes, it was clear he was beginning to understand what was happening. Still, as Kara drew the courage to look back towards him, she realised there was no elation in his expression, no relief. If anything, his frown had only deepened further into his brow. His dark eyes, still a little blood shot, were wary and uncertain as they stared unseeingly at the window.

Kara ached to break through that glass, to get rid of this _stupid_ partition once and for all and tell him it was _okay._ They knew the truth, they understood what he’d sacrificed and, most importantly, no one was mad at him for it.

Well, Alex would probably thump him the second she knew he could take it, but that was just her way of healing.

And Nia…

Kara suspected there was a lot Nia wanted to say, as well.

But, even with everything Kara wanted, she couldn’t bring herself to do any of it. Not when Brainy’s expression was so twisted and forlorn, and not while his doppelganger was looking at him so strangely. No longer stoic and indifferent, instead Querl watched Brainy with a nervousness that could have easily been mistaken for concern.

“You were right,” Querl said. “Your friends _are_ smart.” He shrugged quickly. “Perhaps not of a twelfth level, but still adept enough to know when to seek one… _out._ ”

Brainy blinked suddenly, turning again to look at his counterpart. He stared at him in confusion. “They summoned you here?” he asked weakly, eyes wide. “You… you heeded to it?”

“Like I had a choice,” Querl said, dipping his hands into his pockets. “What is the term? _Genie in a bottle?_ Their _wish_ was my _command._ ”

Brainy shook his head slowly. “It’s more than that.”

Querl rolled his eyes, biting the inside of his cheek. It was strange, seeing so much of his personality return to him in the presence of another version of himself. Brainy was still so weak, and yet the look he gave Querl seemed to glean something from him, however small. A fragment of honesty.

Querl bared his teeth into an almost-grin. He shrugged. “Fine. _Fine._ I… suppose you could say I considered this an _opportunity._ Life for a life. I _took_ one of our lives to try and save my home. I was wrong to do so.” He looked at Brainy levelly. “It is only fitting I save one in recompense. And, who better to save _…_ than the Prime?”

Brainy’s expression faltered. “I am no better than you are,” he murmured, closing his eyes. A strangled laugh caught in the back of his throat. “To try and save this planet… my friends… I-I have done some truly awful things. Things I cannot take back.”

Kara’s heart felt like lead inside her chest. She knew how much regret Brainy must have been holding onto, how much guilt he’d been fighting with this whole time, but he wasn’t seeing the full picture.

He may have hurt them by lying, by teaming up with _Lex_ of all people, but every decision Brainy had made had been deliberated, calculated and simulated a thousand times over. All to ensure that he kept his family safe. It had never been about supporting Lex’s plans, only using them to his own advantage. Nia had told them Brainy had done this alone because he had known there would be no other way. And, he would have gladly died accepting the fact that none of his friends may have ever learned the truth, that he might have gone to the grave as nothing more than a traitor in their hearts.

But, Brainy had survived, and there was no way any of them were going to hold this against him.

Most importantly, he wasn’t going to lose any of them.

And, despite what he may have felt right now, Brainy _wasn’t_ his counterpart. Brainy still held that same goodness at his core, and even though he was tired and frightened, wracked with a guilt so immense it seemed to physically weigh him down, Kara could still feel his strength.

By the look on Querl’s face, Kara suspected he might have sensed the same.

Querl folded his arms, straightening his back as he eyed his doppelganger stolidly. Eventually, he sighed, rolling his shoulders. “I will not pretend to know exactly what occurred to lead you to this moment, but I think we both know that _that_ is not true.” Querl shrugged, narrowing his eyes. “After all, if that were the case, then why would your friends have cared to save you at all?”

Brainy’s eyes glittered with something, the very tip of the emotional iceberg he’d been holding back for so long. His lips trembled before he seemed to think better of trying to speak, closing his mouth again. Instead, he lowered his head, squeezing his blankets as though they were his only lifeline.

It was hard to read Querl’s expression in that moment, but when Brainy shuddered and silent tears began to creep down his cheeks, Querl looked back to the glass, pinpointing Kara’s face immediately.

She knew he had only calculated where she would be stood. He couldn’t see the heartbreak in her own expression as she watched the culmination of the last few months finally catch up with Brainy, forcing every negative emotion to the surface with one vicious heave of his chest.

Querl didn’t reach for Brainy; though he was solid enough, there was nothing he could offer his counterpart, at least, nothing Kara thought would have felt right for either of them. But, the look in his eyes as he stared at the impression of her was unmistakable. Agitation and concern knitted together to form one silent plea.

_Do something._

In that small moment, Kara could see in Querl every bit of good that Brainy had wanted to preserve - the same echo of desperation that had driven him to save his Earth in the first place. But now, there was no darkness looming over his desires. Instead, he was seeking help. Seeking _their_ help. 

Kara felt Nia’s hand on her arm, squeezing her tight. The urgency of her gesture didn’t escape Kara and she reached for Nia in return, cupping her palm over her knuckles.

Kara bit her lip, nodding her head. “Come on,” she told Nia. “Let’s go.”

She was sure she would be breaking a hundred health and safety regulations by not waiting for Lena to return, but she didn’t care. Brainy needed his family right now, and Kara refused to leave him in there with only himself for company a second longer.

There was so much that needed to be said, that was true. But, now that Brainy was healing, they finally had the time to talk.

And, this time, Kara wasn’t going to waste a second of it.


End file.
